Newsletter Spring 2012

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The CAS newsletter "SWITCHED ON" is published once a term (approx.) and is made freely available for download from here. We welcome comments, suggestions and items for inclusion in future issues. Our goal is to put the fun back into computing at school. Will you help us?

Web Supplement

Links to further resources and information covered in this issue:

Page 1Celebrating the genius of AlanTuring
A series of short videos, commissioned by BCS, celebrating the work of key pioneers in computing, including Alan Turing can be found at http://pioneers.bcs.org/

The image of Alan Turing, taken from his statue at Bletchley Park, is reproduced with the permission, and copyright of The Bletchley Park Trust.

Whitehall support for computer science
The CAS wiki details coverage of the calls to bring computing back into the curriculum. In November / December 2011 we posted links to over 30 separate articles, often in the mainstream press. CAS members can access the links at https://sites.google.com/site/computingatschool/links-to-external-resources/media-coveragePage 2 & 3Rediscovering the spirit of the bbc micro
Not signed up to the Raspberry Pi forum yet‌? If you want to be kept in touch about the release date then this is essential. For details of this, and the day to day developments as the Pi nears it’s launch check out http://www.raspberrypi.org/.

http://book.gamemaker.nl/is home to The Game Maker’s Apprentice, which is a wonderful book written by Mark Overmars (the edevloper of GameMaker) and Jacob Habgood. Essential (and addictive) reading to go beyond the basics.

Page 8 & 9Compilers, graphs and Tlan Turing’s halting problem
The sample VB scanning and graphing program refered to in the text can be found here. GraphViz can be downloaded free from http://graphviz.org/

Page 10Dr Seuss, Poetry and Proof: Scooping the loop scooper
Many thanks to Geoffrey Pullum for permission for organisations to use his wonderful proof for educational purposes. The original can be found here: ttp://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/loopsnoop.html

The teaching of artificial intelligence as science
The paper refered to is A. M. Turing, The Chemical Basis Of Morphogenesis,
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London B 237, 237, pp. 37--72, 1952.
The 3rd in a trilogy of essays by Aaron Sloman assessing the impact of Alan Turings ideas, ‘Meta-Morphogenesis: Evolution of Information-Processing Machinery’ can be found at http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/meta-morphogenesis.html
Aaron Sloman writes about the video tutorials referred to in the box;
“using the idea of modelling aspects of a young child learning to count, I have tried to illustrate why learning AI programming ('thinky programming') can provide new insight that has nothing to do with computers: in this case developmental psychology, (and its links with education) and potentially also neuroscience, biology, and philosophy of mathematics. The tutorial/podcast introduces rule-based programming based on an AI programming language, showing some of the power of pattern-matching for structure-manipulation -- crucial for systems that think, see, learn, solve problems, make plans, communicate, etc. The new tutorial is on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch‌v=9TAQoRpvLFE . The plain text 'Teach file' presented in the tutorial, including all the runnable code, is available here: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/teach/number-rulebase.txt

The Youtube site also includes two older tutorials on 'thinky' programming, including one showing how to use a simple formal grammar to generate haikus that are then spoken out loud by the computer, using the linux 'espeak' program (about 31 minutes -- skip bits if necessary): http://www.youtube.com/watch‌v=j0oaK59SSM0"

Page 11WHEN SIZE DOES MATTER (PART two): GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE NOTION OF ALGORITHMIC COMPLEXITY
This article (and the first part in the last issue) is based on the content of an Educational Computing Services Ltd course on teaching Algorithmic Complexity. Further details about their services can be found on the website http://www.educational-computing.co.uk/ The series of articles, from which this is taken, can be found on the link to CAS Newsletter articles from the homepage.

If you are interested in organising a CAS local hub please contact Claire Davenport. CAS has produced a ‘getting started’ guide and Claire will be happy to help get the initial meetings advertised. You can contact her through claire.davenport@bcs.org.uk

Google CS4HS grants
The details of the grant application process can be found at http://cs4hs.com/

Page 15Several organisations join forces as CAS scotland is born
The discussion group on CompEdNet to gather opinions about the Scottish Exemplification Project can be found here: http://bit.ly/CISExemp You will need to register to join in.
More information about the T100 Twit Test can be found at http://www.t100.org.uk/

Computing Curriculum

CAS are working on various guidance documents to amplify which will be posted here shortly. In the meantime do look at the CAS curriculum. This described in concrete terms what a Computing curriculum at school might look like but was produced prior to the new programme of study.

My Digital Life

My Digital Life is the Open University's introduction to Computing undergraduate module. It was developed by The Open University as a wide-ranging and comprehensive introduction to Computer Science, Information Technology, and Digital Literacy, as defined in the new Computing Programme of Study.
The OU in association with CAS are offering this to CAS members as a resource pack. Click for more information.